Life of Dye

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

The inner workings of my middle children

Since we are now half way done with the school year, I thought I'd share some of Henry's writings.

Here's one from Henry's "Jax" phase.

"I Love my baby. Do you know why? I love him because I just do."

This one is from a story they read in class.

"I love when the bears were grabbing nuts."

This is a pretty accurate depiction of what our house looks like. And of course the little guy is the baby and the one with orange hair is Henry.

Check out the stream on this one.

"I love my baby boy. Once my baby peed."

"My baby is super cute. This is my car."

"School is my favorite. School is my favorite thing."

"I like my truck. My truck has turbo."

The first week of January we got slammed with snow.

When your kids can make vertical snow angels, you know you've got a lot.

We ran out of places to put it and I got nervous letting Henry play in it by himself. I felt like I needed to implement the buddy system so he wouldn't get lost or stuck.

It has mostly melted and now the inversion has settled in. I've decided to not hate January like I usually do. At least not this year. It is what it is.

This girl. The other night she asked Justin, "Are you thinking I'm so cute?" Here she is making a hideout by draping the curtains over the couch.

She's a pretty easy-going kid but she can get so obnoxious. Like last night at dinner, she would not sit down and eat. She wanted to stand on her chair and aim finger guns at Henry saying "Double shoot!" over and over again.

She's not ladylike nor is she a tomboy. She is wildly inappropriate with her potty humor (thanks to big brother). She thinks the words to the primary song are "I don't want to be a missionary now." The closest description I can come up with is the class clown though at this point she's just the family clown.

I like her; don't get me wrong. She's my buddy and keeps me laughing and wondering "where did she come from?" ("From heaven," she'll say. Or "from my nest" or "I just want you to give me a Starburst")

Yesterday Sarah made Jello jigglers to try out her new cookie cutters she got for Christmas.

Henry thought they were amazing. I did not try them so I can't comment.

****No Treats 2017 Update****

We're on day 17! The first week I found myself eating more crackers and bread for the lack of sugar. Heading into the third week, I feel like I have some sugar detox momentum going and have noticed that the less sugar I eat, the less I crave it (who knew?). If I eat jam and bread (which isn't on the no list), I'm just going to want jam and bread (or Oreos or ice cream) later. But if I don't, I won't so let's just save myself the exercise in self-control. I look forward to eating my favorite desserts again and have a mental bucket list of things I want to make when this is over but as far as intense daily cravings, not so much. Ya'll have no idea how much sugar I ate in December. I was afraid of what coming off of that would be like.

I am 100% at my exercise goal of 30 min for 5 days a week but I'm slacking on my water goal. Who knew drinking would be the hardest part? I'm down 5 lbs but my jeans don't feel any looser so I wonder where the weight is coming from. I've started looking at fruit as my treats and saving an orange or popcorn for after the kids go to bed. We've eaten a lot of popcorn.

Other observations:
-I haven't been faced with any real temptations, like a delicious spread of desserts at a church activity or something.
-Vegetables taste better. I ate an entire sauteed zucchini.
- Oreos crumbled in a bowl with milk on top does not cereal make.
- My kids are eating healthier too. If I ain't eating it, I'm not buying it or making it either so sorry kids.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

James at 2 Months

James is 2 months old today! I always thought 2 months was the peak of fussiness for my babies. And if this is true for James, I'm getting off pretty easy. He doesn't really get fussy, just restless and hungry. He just wants to eat for more than an hour before he goes to sleep. It's my Netflix time with Justin so for now it's fine but I'd like for him to go down before 10. And it's really annoying if he wakes up 15 minutes later and just wants to eat some more. But still, compared with my other babies' of hours of crankiness, he's pretty easy.

At his check-up he weighed 10 lbs 15 oz and 23 inches long. He wants to keep his title of biggest of my babies.

He smiled for the first time on Christmas Eve and I had to really coax it out of him. Now I can get him to smile at me if I talk to him. He likes to hear how much he's growing. He started to coo last week and it's my favorite. He looks like he's trying to say so many words but just a little coo comes out. And I swear he laughed! It was adorable. Just like to kiss him and snuggle him close.

He is a great eater and pretty good sleeper. Some days he takes a nap for like 3 hours and other days he won't sleep longer than 40 minutes at a stretch. He stays awake for only 90 minutes before he starts dozing again. He usually goes down for the night around 10 and wakes up once during the night between 3-5 am to eat then is good until 7-9 in the morning. We are not on any sort of schedule with him other than the newborn cycle of sleep/eat/sit in seat and look around until he needs mom/held by mom/sleep.

He loves to be talked to. That's pretty much his likes. He dislikes having clothing removed over his head, getting wet, or waiting even a millisecond to eat. He doesn't have stranger danger yet but I'm sure it will come. His eyes are blue, his eyelashes are dark so I think his hair will stay dark too. He is working on getting his fist to his mouth.

I should have taken his picture before the doctor because he is still cranky from his shots---not that I blame him.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Happy New Year!

Saturday was Justin's birthday. We celebrated by smoking a brisket and playing games with his family.

James met his Papa Corey for the first time.

And got reacquianted with Nana Nadine.

Justin got a speaker from his parents and Ticket to Ride from his brothers. He also got some pants that he ordered, some socks that he ordered and some treats from Costco that he picked out.

Corey and Nadine also gave us a comforter, pillows and a water jug. It was the year of cylinder presents.

Sunday, New Years Day, was James's blessing.

This is our first picture of all 6 of us. Check out Erica.

And this is her face after I bribed her with candy. She'll do anything for a chocolate covered almond.

We did his blessing at home with parents, aunts and uncles, and grandparents.

Here's James's 4-generation picture on Justin's mom's side.

And 4-generations on his dad's.

And my kids wrestling with Nate.

This is Sarah and Grandma Henny.

And the Dye clan.

I've talked some of my siblings and Justin into a 2017 health challenge. From New Year's to Easter we are going no treats. No cookies, no cake, no candy, no sugary drinks, no doughnuts, no pie, nothing sugary for 112 days. I'm on day 3 and so far, so good. I haven't had strong cravings yet, just mostly reaching for stuff out of habit before I remember. We've still got some residual Christmas treats around the house (I put my homemade caramel in the freezer) but once my kids finish that off, that should decrease the temptations around here. I'm exercising 5 days a week for 30 min each day and added a goal of tripling my current water intake. I may periodically post about how I'm doing and the results I'm seeing. Blogging about it will help keep me motivated.